Absence of govt officials in NA’s finance committee irks Asad Umar

--‘If the govt is not serious about passing of bills, then they should at least take the committee members seriously’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Asad Umar on Thursday expressed displeasure over the absence of government officials from a session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, a private media house reported.

The committee, in protest, deferred its

approval for the passage of government bills, including the Foreign Exchange
Regulation Amendment Bill, 2019, Anti Money Laundering Amendment Bill, 2019,
and Asset Declaration Ordinance, 2019.

"We are postponing the passage of all

government bills," remarked Asad Umar. "If the government is not
serious about these bills, then they should at least take us (committee
members) seriously," he said.

Umar noted that the committee "cannot

dictate to the Ministry of Finance" and its role is to merely
"advise, recommend, and monitor".

The committee members in attendance expressed

grave concern over the rising inflation and requested a briefing on the
increase in prices of cement, flour, sugar and airline tickets.

Umar expressed frustration over the fact that

"there are billions of dollars stashed abroad which are not being brought
back to the country," and that "despite not wanting to, the
government has been forced to place an additional burden on the people".

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) subsequently

briefed committee members on bank account records of overseas Pakistanis.

The board said that it had obtained data from

28 countries for 152,000 accounts. "These accounts contain $7.5
billion," the FBR officials said, before adding: "Of these, just 650
accounts account for $4.5 billion."

The officials did clarify, however, that 60 per cent of these account holders had availed the tax amnesty scheme, to which Umar said: "In attempting to cracking down on such individuals, we were too late in introducing the tax amnesty scheme. If we had cracked down on them sooner, the scheme would have received a greater response from people."

The committee rejected the board's briefing and

summoned the FBR chairman to give a detailed briefing on overseas accounts in
the committee's next session.